Hamal
HR 617 · HIP 9884 · α Ari
👁️ Naked-eye
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Star
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.01 mag
- Parallax
- 49.56 mas → about 65.8 light-years away
- Spectral type
- K2III
- Right ascension
- 31.7934°
- Declination
- 23.4624°
- Designation
- HR 617
- Bayer designation
- α Ari
- HIP number
- 9884
- IAU name adopted
- 2016-07-20
- Name language
- Arabic
- Name origin (IAU)
- Applied in recent times from the Arabic constellation name, al-hamal, "the Lamb", for Aries. al-hamal seems to belong to those zodiacal constellation names already known in Arabic times.
Source:IAU Working Group on Star Names · checked 2026-11-02 ↗ESA Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA Gaia Archive) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗
Related
Constellation
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 66 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1960 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 2 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
- Declination 23.5° — it rises above the horizon in Seoul (37.6° N), so it is visible from Korea in the right season.
Worked out from this object's official values.